This semester I’m trying a couple of new things with my students to try and engage them on an intellectual level that doesn’t necessarily feed the beast of academia.  We are currently in a unit where we talk about the big questions of existence.  So last night, I had them do five minutes of research on Nick Bostrom’s “simulation theory” (this after researching Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” as well as multiverse theory).  I only know of Bostrom and his theory because of Chuck Klosterman’s But What If We’re Wrong?  One chapter of the book ends up being about theories some might be led to label “conspiracy” but that transcend the descriptor.  Here’s how Klosterman described Bostrom’s “not the Matrix” theory of reality:

What we believe to be reality is actually a computer simulation, constructed in a future where artificial intelligence is so advanced that those living inside the simulation cannot tell the difference.  Essentially, we would all be characters in a supernaturally sophisticated version of The Sims of Civilization . . . But none of this would be real in the way that term is traditionally used.  And this would be true for all of history and all of space.

What Bostrom is asserting is that there are three possibilities about the future, one of which must be true.  The first possibility is that the human race becomes extinct before reaching the stage where such a high-level simulation can be built.  The second possibility is that humans do reach that stage, but for whatever reason– legality, ethics, or simple disinterest– no one ever tries to simulate the complete experience of civilization. The third possibility is that we are living in a simulation right now.  Why?  Because if it’s possible to create this level of computer simulation (and if it’s legally and socially acceptable to do so), there won’t just be one simulation.  There will be an almost limitless number of competing simulations, all of which would be disconnected from each other.  A computer program could be created that does nothing except generate new simulations, all day long, for a thousand consecutive years.  And once those various simulated societies reach technological maturity, they would (assumedly) start creating simulations of their own—simulations inside of simulations.  Eventually, we would be left with the one original “real” reality, along with billions and billions of simulated realities.  Simple mathematical odds tell us that it’s far more likely our current reality would fall somewhere in the latter category.  The chance that we are living through the immature stages of the original version is certainly possible, but ultra-remote.

Klosterman even brings Brian Greene, theoretical physicist, into the discussion.  Greene asserts that the theory could easily involve a geek a few centuries from now creating whole worlds on the computer system in his garage . . . and we’d never know.

Fascinating.

(image from linkedin.com)